Joe Satriani Creates Alter Ego for New ‘Shockwave Supernova’ Album

Joe Satriani will release Shockwave Supernova, his 15th solo album and first since 2013's Unstoppable Momentum, on July 24. The typically reserved Satriani says this new project uses an outlandish, alter ego -- also named Shockwave Supernova -- as both a springboard and creative center.

The guitarist recorded the album at Skywalker Sound in Lucas Valley, Calif., with a principal working group consisting of multi-instrumentalist Mike Keneally, drummer Marco Minnemann and bassist Bryan Beller. “I couldn’t have asked for a better band to help bring these songs to life,” Satriani says in a press release announcing the LP.

Four cuts from Shockwave Supernova find Satriani working once again with drummer Vinnie Colaiuta and Jane’s Addiction bassist Chris Chaney. They appeared, along with Keneally, on Unstoppable Momentum. And they aren't the only friendly faces. Co-producer and engineer John Cuniberti, whose partnership with Satriani goes back to his 1986 debut album Not of This Earth and its platinum-selling follow-up Surfing With the Alien, also returns.

A world tour will follow the release of Shockwave Supernova, beginning in Europe in September and then tracking into the U.S. in early 2016. Along the way, Satriani will join fellow guitar hero Steve Vai for a June 12 concert in support of Cliff Cultreri, the A&R executive who discovered them. Cultreri is fighting a series of auto-immune and connective-tissue disorders.

The busy Satriani, a lifelong science-fiction fan, has also somehow found the time to co-create a new animated series called Crystal Planet. "The hero of the show uses music generated by a unique electric guitar to travel through time," Satriani says, "while the show’s characters struggle to preserve the future and past of humankind."